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The Moonguard Revolt
The Moonguard Revolt, ten years on Published 4E28 by the Bjoulsae Historical Society, University of Wayrest, with the Blessing of her most Gracious Queen Elysana of Wayrest and all her Dominions Even now, with a decade to have digested the events of 4E18 and with the status quo resulting from those cataclysmic days more or less settled, The Moonguard Revolt continues to remain an enigma for the historian, a controvesy for the common man, and a tool for the politician. With the historical novelty of such a recent event with so many wildly conflicting accounts of just what happened, and in what order, it is easy to neglect the central, most important fact: in 4E18 the entire city of Bhoriane, the towns of Kirkwold and Blackwich Heath and much of the surrounding countryside were sacked, the inhabitants put to the sword or captured as booty, the wealth plundered and most of the settlements burnt to the ground by rampaging Orcs. Estimates of the total death toll of the raids range from 20,000 to 50,000, mostly non combatants, the list of those rendered infirm or who lost their homes, incalcupable. No-matter the political importance of the Moonguard Revolt, or on whose shoulders the blame should fall, it is proper that we remember in our prayers the families effected by this terrible tragedy, and all the souls now departed to aetherius. The Moonguard Incident was ignited, and gained his moniker from, a series of demands signed by a cartel of nobles from Koegria, Kambria and Bhoriane, received by Queen Elysana of Wayrest on the day of South Wind's Prayer, Morning Star, 4E18. The demands set out by the so-called Moonguard Ultimatum were deliberately provocative in nature, and the signees would have understood their proposals, amounting to a near-total release from the royal duty they owed via sacred vassalage to their Queen, had no chance of being accepted. The threat they offered was total secession from the Kingdom; the document was nothing more than a declaration of outright rebellion. The constraints Queen Elysana was put under by this treasonous article have been well documented. The harvest of 4E17 had been a particularly poor one, and the following winter the harshest in years, owing to the desecration of the Temple of Kynareth on the eleventh of Rain's Hand that year. The entire of High Rock was suffering from the consequences. Wayrest felt the squeeze more sharply than other Kingdoms, as our reliance on trade, most of our grain coming at the time from Evermore and Camlorn, forced us to pay greatly over the odds for what little grain there was left. The royal coffers were emptied paying for provisions for the starving poor, the silos having long since been depleted. This, combined with the disruption of our southern Trade empire, left Elysana little to no money with which to spend on a military expedition to depose the Moonguard Traitors. The details of what happened next are sketchy. What we do know, is that Balzog gro-Shazgob, the Marshall of Wayrest's-then-allies, Nova Orisinium, approached Elysana with an offer: for the Orcs to end the rebellion for her as a show of solidarity between the allies, with no payment needed, the glory of victory apparently being enough. As incredible an offer as this may seem now with the benefit of hindsight, at the time it was well known that Balzog was the main pretender to Gortwog's throne, and in the simplistic tradition of the Orcs, honour is won first on the battlefield. As one-on-one duels for supremacy had been outlawed under Gortwog, the only way Balzog could have reasonably raised his position at court was with a victory in the field. All of these considerations were understood by Elysana at the time. Persuaded by the powerful force of argument of the Orcish general, and mindful of the dire economic situation at home, Elysana reluctantly gave gro-Shazgob her permission to set out with a detachment of Orcs to Kambria, in order to quell the revolt, on the 17th of Morning Star. What Elysana, or no-one else not privy to the inner turmoil of the Orcish state, could have anticipated was the speed and enthusiasm at which the Orcs rallied to Balzog's call. All up and down the considerable length of the Bjoulsae that Orisinium then commanded, adventurers, bandits and marauders joined the cause. What Elysana had been assured would be an ordered military maneuver by a legitimate state, almost instantly proved to be little more than a massing of a latent horde that had been hidden, bloodthirsty in the Wrothgarians for decades. There was no stopping it by now, within days a fleet of ships, mostly Bjoulsae river-boats tied together with endless ropes, or captured trading vessels packed to the brim, the giant flotilla of the Orcish horde set sail from the mouth of the Bjoulsae, its course set on Kambria. Again, the following events are shrouded in confusion and contradictory reports. From what we gather, the raiding of the Bhoriane-district coast had already began on the twenty fifth of Morning Star, before the main body of the horde had arrived. There are numerous reports of pillars of smoke, and localised robberies throughout the area between the twenty fifth and the twenty eight. Sometime before Mad St Pelagius Day on the 2nd of Sun's Dawn, the main body of the horde reached the shores of Bhoriane. Around this time we find testimonies of the first villages completely disappearing, from the few survivors who escaped the region. On the sixth of Sun's Dawn, the main army of the Moonguard Traitors met Balzog gro-Shazgob's force outside the already-burning Bhoriane. The Kambrian army was completely routed, and the Count of Koegria slain. Although reports from Kambria tend to exaggerate the numbers, it is claimed that over half of the rebelling county's military force was lost during this battle, including the entirety of Kambria's infantry. By the ninth of Sun's Dawn the walls of Bhoriane had been breached (it is thought the Orcs utilized siege ladders, though there are no testimonies from the siege itself), and the orgy of slaughter within the walls had began. The scale of the the wanton murder and rapine issued by the Orcs during the following two days is beyond our comprehension It is understood that of those who had not yet escaped the city before the ninth of Sun's Dawn, there were no survivors who were not taken as slaves by the Orcish horde. For the following week, The orcs sailed further upriver and laid waste to every settlement they could lay their fingers upon. By this time word of the destruction being reaped by The Orcs thankfully had already reached much of the neighbouring countryside (which already had greatly surpassed the damage done to the region during the Oblivion Crisis eighteen years prior), and most of the surrounding lands had been evacuated. Whatever was left was torched to the ground. Back across the Iliac, word slowly trickled out of the atrocities that were being committed by our Orcish allies. At first the stories were dismissed as scandal spread by the Moonguard Traitors, but soon word reached the Kingdoms of High Rock from reliable sources that the rumours were indeed true: the great city of Bhoriane had been razed by Orcs under the command of Balzog gro-Shazgob. Having received confirmation of this, Evermore and Shornhelm immediately rallied their forces, King Allard in protection of his southern flank (at that time Shornhelm held almost the entirety of the Wrothgarians not controlled by the Orcs), and King Titus in open provocation, issuing duel warnings to both Nova Orisinium and Wayrest that Evermore was "willing to hunt down and execute the arbiters of this atrocity if no-one else would, Oblivion claim those who stand in the way of justice". As soon as she received confirmation of what was taking place across the Iliac, our Queen Elysana issued a public letter addressed to her ally King Gortwog gro-Nagorm calling for the head of Balzog gro-Shazgob, and declaring all those who took part in the sacking as enemies of Wayrest. The letter, as much for the eyes of High Rock at large as its official l addressee, pointed out that it was not Wayrest's place to arrest a criminal from their ally, and Elysana would await instruction from Nova Orisinium as to how the two should go about catching the murderous horde the later had unleashed. The letter was published on the Fourteenth of Sun's Dawn. By the Twentieth, there was still no reply. Bhoriane burned, and the horde began to spread its wanton destruction further along the coast, and still there was no answer from the capital of the Orcs. A second declaration was issued by King Titus on the twenty-fifth, now co-signed by his recent enemy, King Allard, warning Wayrest and the Orcs that Evermore and Shornhelm were already preparing their armies to march south, having officially declared war on Orisinium, though not yet, it was added, on Wayrest. Then-King Senhyn of Camlorn had gathered his bannermen and had already entered Kambria under the Count's permission. With no reply from Orisinium, and possibly facing a war on three fronts, Elysana was forced to break her alliance with the Orcs, and muster the entire of Wayrest's armies, taking out an unprecedented loan with the Tault Bank of Wayrest in order to pay for a mercenary force to sail after Balzog's horde and attempt to apprehend him, as the bulk of Wayrest's army marched North to keep our lands safe from Orisinium itself. Wayrest joined Evermore, Shornhelm, The Moonguard Traitors and Camlorn in the war against the Orcs. There are countless volumes written on the chaotic, bloody war that followed, not within the remit of this present piece. The briefest summary shall suffice: as a result of the Moonguard Revolt, and with the armies of four Kingdoms of High Rock in pursuit, Balzog fled the coast of Bhoriane and began a long campaign against the Bretons, before his fleet was sunk by our fleet at the Battle of Mournoth, scattering his bandit-army south into Hammerfell and the Dragontails, where they remain to this day. With our attention focused on the prolonged siege of Orisinium, Senhyn of Camlorn was able to cowardly seize Kambria and Bhoriane, defeating our mercenary force sent to protect it, but proved too slow in reorganising his forces to march north in order to also capture Koegria, which the forces of the Count of Menevia and Prince Geruld of Alcaire had meanwhile reclaimed. Koegria surely soon to be besieged, our forces left the Orisinium siege to rally to its defence, when an unexpected alliance was drawn up between Daggerfall and Camlorn via the betrothal of Senhyn's daughter to the wastrel, immoral King of Daggerfall, a shameful price Senhyn was forced to pay in order to protect his meagre winnings from the full wrath of Elysana's army. With Daggerfall and possibly Sentinel poised to enter the war, Elysana was regrettably forced to sign a White Peace agreement with Senhyn, which set in law the current boundaries in that area. What, if anything, can we learn from the calamitous series of events started by the Moonguard Ultimatum? The wanton destruction that resulted seems to us rightly to be senseless, and in fact beyond all comprehension. Once the gears of history began to turn, like some dwemeri automaton, there was checking the march of devastation that followed. Even Queen Elysana could do nothing to bring an end to hostilities before blood had been spilt from Bhoriane to Gauvadon, and the entire political makeup of High Rock irreparably changed. The Orcs lost their empire, reduced only to the single holding of their capital, Wayrest lost two of its richest counties, and the people of Bhoriane lost everything. All of this, it can only reasonably be deduced, is the price to pay for treason, and the raising of arms against one's rightful ruler. ~ Louis Collywood, University of Wayrest, 4E28 '' ' ' ELLYSANA AND BALZOG: THE TWO TRAITORS ' '''FORGED IN THE FIRST ORISINIUM SCHOOL FOR ORISMER LAERNING, NOVA ORISINIUM, 4E TWENTY-EIGHT Much words have been written by the thinkers and the writers from Wayrest and Evermore and Camlorn and Shornhelm and all of the Breton Kingdoms about what happened on 4E Eighteen but none of it makes any sense. The reason why all of the thinkers and writers and the scholars from all of these places dont make any sense is that none of them were there. Except Wayrest, they were there, and censored-Queen Elysanna knows what happened because she did the worst of it, but she is the reason that all of the writings from Wayrest don't make anysense, because she tells all of them to lie. The only other one who knows what happened is Balzog but he ran away to the Dragontails and he is never coming back. But when Balzog started murdering people and killing children all of the good decent Orisimer with him started to come back they were angry with Balzog and they told the story of what really happened and why everything Wayrest says is a lie. ' ' What the Wayrest books don't say is that Balzog was only in Wayrest and was only in command of the army because King Gortwog needed to keep him out of the city. When Great King Gortwog founded Nova Orisinium he brought all of the Orimer together under one safe roof but not all of the Orismer were trustworthy and civilized. Gortwog had a dream that we would be treated just like any other folk like men and like the other mer but there were plenty of Orismer who wanted to keep raiding and pillaging like criminals. The worst of all of them was Balzog he was young and powerful but he was cowardly and never faced Gortwog in open conflict. King Gortwog wanted to avoid civil war because he loved his people so he gave Balzog command of the army and cept him out of the city. Balzog was cowardly and a traitor and he let his army fill up with bandits and thieves and killers and he spent all of his time wineing and dining in Wayrest while his army got hungry and restless. ' ' Elasana was lazy and corrupt and cowardly like Balzog and so when the Moonguard tribes made war on her she didnt send her army because she was scared to lose them she asked Balzog to go and do it for her. The Wayrest books say that Balzog asked Elysania but that is another lie because we know that Balzog didnt want to use his army to fight any wars he was happy with it sitting there and getting plump on the local wealth. Esylana knew how dangerous Balzog was and she knew what he would do but she didnt care because she thought she could get away with it so she asked him to stop the rebellion for her. ' ' Then Balzog did his trechary. He betrayed all of us and King Gortwog who had trusted him with the army most of all. As soon as he was asked he did not send the request to his King but he pretended he had already recieved it which was a lie. He stole boats from the Bjoulsae people and gathered together all the armies he could muster and issued the battle-call which canot be recalled. Once the army had set sail even he could not have stopped it. ' ' When Balzog got to Bhoriane he spent all of his time killing women and children and taking bounty and tried his hardest to avoid the army he had been asked to defeat. When word got back to Nova Orisinium, Gortwog called for Balzog to be arrested as a traitor but his High Council were traitors too. Many of them were secret Malauch Worshippers. King Gortwog had to fight his way through the city in order to send his decree but by the time he had defeated the traitor-chieftans inside the city Elsana had already betrayed him too and declared war on Nova Orisinium. Elisana didn't even bother to send her army after Balzog she joined with Evermore and Shornhelm and broke her Alliance with us because she was greedy to steal all of our mountain kingdom from us. All of the Bretons allied together against us and even when the loyal Orismer returned from Balzog's traitor horde to defend the city it was not enough. Our armies fought valiantly and we defended the Iron City during a long siege when all of our friends had turned against us and all Bretons wanted us dead for the crimes of Balzog, but we could not be defeated and we still defend Nova Orisinium to this day. ' ' Meanwhile Balzog heard what all true Orismer thought of him and revealed that he had been a Malauch worshipper all along and have never followed the glorious path of Triminac. He lied about his religion to gain power and he betrayed the Orismer who trusted him with that power. Balzog was too afraid to fight even Camlorn so he took his bandit army and he sailed away to raid more cities and kill more children and steal more women. His heaten army was so mighty he could have defeated any Kingdom on land he was cowardly and greedy for more loot so his army was trapped at sea and he was forced to land it in Hammerfell and move to the Dragontails where he is still hiding. What Bretons dont understand but Orismer and Redguards do is that the Malauch Orismer are the most dangerous threat to anyone now. If Balzog was not so cowardly he could sack any city just like he did Bhoriane but he likes to sit in the Dragontails and raid and loot all the innocents around. The Bretons do not understand how many of us there are and they do not understand that Balzog steals away all of the wicked and the weak and he trains them to be monsterous savage beasts like Malauch in his mountain home. ' ' Every good and decent orismer comes to live in Nova Orisinium now and we grow rich but every decent orismer knows never to trust Elsayna gro-Eadwyr. They know what her promises mean. And the Great Prophet Khardush gro-Gortwog knows how to protect us and make sure that nothing like the Bhoriane horror ever happens again because He understands that Malauch worship is the root of evil for the Orismer and that all Orismer that follow Triminac are equal. But Balzog and Elsyana the two traitors have made the name of the orismer dirty by they betrayal and their lies. Every day what we do in Nova Orisinium shows that they are liars and that what they say and do does not decide what it means to be a Orismer. We know the truth. ' ' GRODOSH GRO-DOSHGRO PROFESSOR OF HISTORY WROTE THIS ON 4E TWENTY-EIGHT